‘Le Figaro’: Middle East peace, ‘PM Wilf’ by 2031

“Le Figaro” described a peaceful Middle East in which Israel is led by the current 40-year-old freshman MK.

Could Independence Party faction head Einat Wilf be prime minister of Israel in the year 2031? The French newspaper Le Figaro thinks so.

As part of a series of articles on how the world will look 20 years from now, Le Figaro described a peaceful Middle East in which Israel is led by the current 40-year-old freshman MK who has degrees from Harvard, Cambridge and INSEAD.

Wilf and Jordanian King Hussein II inaugurate a bridge connecting Jerusalem and Amman to the benefit of Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian Republic.

“I cannot remember how it all seemed impossible when I was first elected to the Knesset in 2009,” Wilf said at the ceremony, hailing “a new era of prosperity and cooperation.” The article looks back on the success of an Israeli- Palestinian peace accord signed at the White House in 2020. The unnamed Palestinian president recalls being pardoned and released from an Israeli prison as part of the accord.

The US president given credit for the accord is David Petraeus, the American four-star general who is set to become CIA director next month. The article notes that Petraeus was given the Nobel Peace Prize in 2021 for the achievement.

Iraq is described in 2031 as “a popular destination for Americans, and many veterans of the Great War in the Middle East often go to visit the battlefields.”

The Middle East is described as an area of rapid economic development.

“Connecting the two banks of the Jordan by an expressway is the ultimate symbol of the rapid development experienced by the region in the last 10 years,” the article said. “Since the customs union agreement signed last year between the Hashemite Kingdom, the Republic of Palestine and the State of Israel, the latest checkpoints have been removed and it is hardly one notices that you move from one city to another.”

The article describes the younger generations as “more interested in the economy than history and old quarrels trotted out by a few elderly people.” It predicts a housing boom fueled by the revenues generated by huge deposits of oil and gas offshore in the eastern Mediterranean.

“This rapid development is not without environmental problems, I am aware,” Wilf is quoted as saying. “But by focusing on the high speed Damascus- Beirut-Tel Aviv-Alexandria train, we should be able to ease the congestion of the roads.”

The current Wilf reacted with amusement to the article, saying “With peace in the Middle East and the Israeli premiership perhaps I should resign while I’m still ahead?”